Reincarnation
by Meg F
Summary: Glory needs Buffy...


Giles coughed, and stretched his arms. Something clanked. He opened his eyes.   
  
Chains?  
  
Suddenly completely awake, he sat up and looked around. He was in some sort of fancy, impeccably clean bathroom, with a huge bath.   
  
And chains. He tested the brackets holding the chains to the wall. He was chained next to the toilet. Quite securely, too. His legs ached.   
  
At a loss, he cleared his throat. "Um, hello?"  
  
A slender woman in a red dress and red stilettos strode in. "What's this?" she demanded impatiently.   
  
"Glory," he breathed, chilled to the bone.   
  
"Yeah, yeah, I know who I am. Who the hell are you?"  
  
A short, round man with long, pointed ears and a distorted face poked his head anxiously around the door. "Ah, your Glorificus, your most wondrous beauty," he rattled off, "that is the man we found with the Slayer."  
  
Glory's mood shifted. She clapped her hands with delight. "Oh, you're the little girl's Watcher, aren't you! Mr Giles. How enchanting. I'm familiar with your work." Giles blinked, mystified.  
  
Effortlessly, she yanked the chains out of the wall and pulled him to his feet. "Dreg, get these chains off him or I'll gut you like a fish," she said in the same cheerful tone.   
  
Dreg leapt into action, taking a large key from his pocket and undoing the shackles on Giles' arms and legs. Giles rubbed his wrists gratefully.  
  
Glory inspected him. "I've got a secret," she confided, leaning in close.   
  
"Oh?" Giles responded, wary.  
  
"I've got the Slayer!"  
  
Giles' heart pounded in his chest, though her secret wasn't really a surprise. Knowing it was probably useless, he carefully kept his face blank. "What are you going to do?"  
  
"I'll show you, Mr Watcher," she said happily. She took his arm and directed him into the main living area of the apartment. He limped alongside her. A small door next to the window was ajar. It seemed to ripple. His gaze slid off it when he tried to look more closely.   
  
"I've been experimenting," she told him, "as I've gained power. It's all so exciting!"  
  
They went through the door. The smell of antiseptic hit Giles in the face, and he finally saw Buffy.   
  
She was unconscious, strapped to a table, with more tubes sticking out of her than he wanted to think about. Her face was bone-white. A heart monitor beeped steadily beside her; too slowly, from what he could tell. There were at least ten other machines around her. None as mundane as the heart monitor - he couldn't recognise any of them.  
  
He blurted, "Is she all right?"  
  
"Oh, yes," Glory replied. "Tiny little Barbie girl is just fine. But not for long." She turned to face him. "And don't question me again, okay?" He gulped at the menace in her voice, then nodded.  
  
Another of Glory's minions was working on a machine at the end of the impossibly long room. There were fifteen or twenty trolleys next to him, their contents covered by sheets. He wore gloves and a surgical mask.  
  
Glory sauntered towards him. Giles followed helplessly.   
  
The minion looked up as Glory approached. "Ah, your celestial magnificence, they are almost ready," he grovelled, abasing himself on the floor.  
  
"Get up, Jinxie," Glory smiled. "Show me my babies." Jinx stood with alacrity, and removed the sheets from two trolleys.  
  
Glory giggled. Giles reeled in horror. Two proto-people lay motionless, basically bipedal but with unformed faces. No nose, no mouth, no eyes.  
  
But they each had long, blonde hair.  
  
"We can try one, if you like, your wonderful splendidness?"  
  
"Set 'er up, Jinxie! You see, Mr Giles, I've been reading up on Slayers. I found out that each one is called when the previous ones dies. It's kind of a random process, but I can control it."  
  
"Because you're so amazingly brilliant, your Glorificus," Jinx gushed as he wheeled one trolley down towards Buffy. He started hooking the occupant up to tubes and monitors.  
  
"Then I read up a little more on Buffy, courtesy of your diaries." Giles' heart started to beat faster. His suspicions about the recent break-in had just been confirmed. Glory went on, oblivious. "Because she's just so darn cute. And annoying. I learned about what happened to her a few years ago."  
  
Jinx pulled a switch. Buffy convulsed, mouth gaping wide in pain. The heart monitor went crazy. Giles jolted forward, instinctively trying to help, but Glory's arm was an iron bar across his throat.  
  
"There's a teensy little loophole in the whole 'death' thing."  
  
Buffy collapsed, completely limp. The monitor sounded a long, flat beep. The proto-person shuddered. Its face rippled. A nose appeared, then a mouth, then eyes. It - she - drew in a breath.   
  
Jinx took a long syringe and injected the contents into the side of Buffy's neck. She twitched. The heart monitor started to beep waveringly. Giles exhaled in horror.  
  
Glory beamed. "An army of Slayers - all under my control. Isn't it *neat*?"  



End file.
